Reinvention of A Home
by gacrux11
Summary: In which Karin learns a fear is only as great as you expect it to be.


a/n: I started writing this before Sasuke's heel-face-turn so in this fic he's still an avenging asshole who didn't want to come back to Konoha, as tired as that idea may be. If ya find any errors let me know so I can fix them. I proofread everything I post but I always end up missing something sorry for that.

Some good old fashioned Karin Appreciation yo.

* * *

The wind in Konoha is gentle and warm, rustling through the leaves and tugging at the tips of her hair playfully. The wisps of clouds that have stuck around since earlier in the morning drift through the afternoon sky in an unhurried manner, taking their time to wander from one end of the horizon to the other. Birds flutter from tree to tree in a frenzy of quiet peeps, sharing space with insects and small mammals that skitter fretfully through the forest. Cicadas chirp from somewhere deep in the forest, echoing the sound of frogs that linger in the shade of the cattails near the river.

There is something innately peaceful about the Village of the Leaf, Karin has decided, and it isn't just in the warmth of the sun or the cheerful, welcoming grins of the townsfolk.

It is ingrained in the soil, woven into the bark of the trees, and embedded in the genetics of the clans. It's like the hospitable warmth of the sun here has somehow wound itself into the earth and the people, imparting upon them a streak of refined morality and an innate sympathy that makes them kind. The intimate understanding these people have with catastrophe and despair lends them a hard-boiled kind of determination to save innocents, as well as the will to survive and rebuild when tragedy strikes.

It is nothing like she has ever known.

Not even in her own village had she ever felt so welcomed. It's odd but it feels almost familiar, like coming back to a place she knew as a child, and she can never seem to shake the little voice in the back of her head that whispers _'home.' _

She's well aware that a number of people from the Uzumaki clan settled in Konoha after the destruction of their village, but she is a descendent from a family based in Kusagakure. She shouldn't feel such a strong sense of connection and unity to this place, let alone the comfortable ease in calling it her home after three years spent there, half of which was in jail.

Yet here she is.

And thanking her lucky stars for Sakura, nonetheless.

They hadn't gotten along at first, but Tsunade commissioned Sakura to watch over her and keep her in line when Karin was removed from the holding cell she lived out of for the better part of eighteen months. How that decision came to pass, Karin figures she may never know, but she certainly isn't about to start complaining. She remembers the bitter appreciation for the freedom, although spending almost every waking moment with Sakura had been a trying ordeal in the beginning.

Her fried temper will probably never be the same again.

On the plus side, she has a sparring partner that's available for practice whenever she isn't working at the hospital or assisting Tsunade in some way. Despite the fact that Sakura hasn't been Tsunade's official apprentice for years now, she still relishes in being able to glean information off the older kunoichi every chance she can get.

The Haruno's admiration for the woman runs as deep as her love for her team, no matter how disconnected they may be. The division is no marginal fraction either - it's a jagged, painful splinter down the center that separates Sasuke from the rest of the team, and it's being held together by Naruto's imperviously catching determination. The boy simply refuses to let go of anyone he considers a friend. Karin's still not sure how Sasuke defends against such a chaotic wealth of involvement, and care, and genuine concern for his well-being. It's like he's got a shell of steel surrounding his heart that keeps his hatred iced over and his friends at a distance. It's seamless and has so far prevented everyone but his old team from making a real connection with him.

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi: team seven. They're the glitch in the system. The only ones who made the mad dive for Sasuke, and the only ones who could get a half-decent conversation out of him.

After Naruto dragged Sasuke back to Konoha kicking and screaming (or brooding, realistically), he fought tooth and nail to call off the execution. His closeness with the hokage gave him a firm leg-up on the situation, but Karin still can't imagine how difficult it would've been to convince the elders to forgo the route of penalty that led to execution. She's heard nothing but nasty things about their strict policies whenever they're brought up in conversation.

Even when that was over, Sasuke continued to play the stubborn villain. He wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Naruto.

Naruto, being the cheerful idiot he is, took his silence as both a challenge and an insult and went back to Sasuke's cell everyday. Karin knows this because Sakura told her, and Sakura spends a lot of time with Sasuke, too.

"He's so spiteful. I bet if someone told him to keep breathing he'd stop just to be contrary." Sakura once said, and Karin thinks that's a nice little summary of Sasuke's inconceivably angry personality.

Karin still hasn't mustered up the courage to go see her old team leader, her old crush, although she's visited Suigetsu and Jūgo often enough. They trailed in after Sasuke a few days post-capture and were cut the same deal Karin was: become a citizen Konoha. It sounds simple but 'becoming a citizen of Konoha' involves a lot of paperwork that no one wants to do, odd jobs that genin would be more capable of doing, and getting used living in daily contact with people who you probably hate but have to put up with anyway.

Worst of all, she's come to like most of the idiots she expected to hate for the rest of her life.

Sakura's not that bad, they've got a lot in common. Her best friend, Ino, has a competitive fashion sense and she likes to tease Sakura, which Karin found hilarious at first. When she was integrated into their friendship, which happened alarmingly quickly, she was given the nickname 'Four-eyes' and is teased just as often as Sakura nowadays. Their fights are epic and can be heard village-wide.

Then there's Sai whose creepily fixated on Sakura these days, and he's as blunt with his words as Suigetsu is, probably more so. He's taken so many head-shots it's a wonder he's got any braincells left to function normally. Apparently he's 'getting better at being an emotionally sufficient human being,' or so Sakura likes to parrot whenever he says something particularly insulting. Karin doesn't believe it for a second.

Lee is a weird one but Karin can't begrudge him his oddity so she finds it amusing instead, and Hinata's pretty strong but shy and hard to dislike on the whole, just because of her ridiculous determination to change her clan. Neji has a stick up his ass that may or may not be permanent, and TenTen is hilarious mostly. The two of them like to make fun of her ridiculous teammates together, so they get on pretty well. Shikamaru, meanwhile, likes to make sarcastic comments and raises an eyebrow at anyone who calls him out on it. Choji is the guy's partner in crime and eats a lot, which Karin agrees is a better habit than making sarcastically vague comments that hang in the air with nowhere to go because they aren't directed at anyone in particular.

Kiba is absurdly protective of his teammates and especially his dog, who Karin once made the mistake of calling a mutt. A long fight was had. Karin's not sure who won, it turned into a melee shortly after it began. Shino is as mysterious as they come, but he leans more toward cool-creepy than creepy-creepy in her opinion. He also knows how to keep his mouth shut, which is almost a lost cause on this generation, so he's got her respect.

There's so many people she's met and actually gotten along with here and she's not quite sure how that happened. She's used to being shunned, aggravated, or ignored simply because of who she's been traveling with for so long. It's different now, and she knows where Sakura and Naruto draw their strength from. They've got friends here who act as a base when they're out on missions. They know people are rooting for them to come home in one piece.

She's never had that so knowing people want her to live is sort of like learning to speak a new language.

Suigetsu and Jūgo, meanwhile, have to decide for themselves whether they want to accept the deal or not. It took her seventeen months to decide whether she wanted to be integrated into Konoha, almost two long years of indecision. Suigetsu's been in there for a few weeks now and he's probably already made his decision, but Jūgo's more likely to do something stupid like suggesting he stay in his cell until Sasuke leaves his.

Jūgo is loyal to a fault most of the time. It would be sad if it wasn't so hilarious.

"I'm talking to you, you know." Sakura informs her, sounding an amused kind of melancholy. When Karin redirects her eyes to meet Sakura's, she's taken aback by the genuine concern she sees misting over them.

"Oh. Right." She's been putting off thinking about what she's going to do, so she's been subconsciously ignoring everything Sakura's been telling her. It's all about Sasuke, and how to deal with his capricious mood swings and silver-sweet tongue.

Karin has to remind herself that Sakura wants to help. She forces the annoyance at being instructed on how to deal with her ex-teammate out of her mind, pushing herself to accept the concern with a weak smile.

Sakura's eyes are sharp and cut right through her, but when she opens her mouth to speak she isn't accusatory.

"He's not the Sasuke you knew. He's not even the Sasuke _I _knew. He's changed. It's like he's in the middle of a metamorphosis, stuck between two different versions of himself." The kunoichi's pink hair is swept up by the warm breeze and she tucks it behind her ears, a faint smile tracing her lips. It's there and then gone, like ripples on a smooth pond. Her eyes sharpen when she turns to Karin, a grim set to her jaw. They're outside the door to the prison now, and Karin regrets this decision more than ever. She won't turn back, though, if only because she's standing beside Sakura and her pride won't let her turn away from something she fears in front of a rival.

_A friend, _says a voice in the back of her mind, warming the depths of her heart.

"Karin, listen to me," Sakura says, standing with her shoulders back and her eyes boring forward. "I'm not saying he will, but if Sasuke sees you and looks for a fight, give him one. Don't give him any weaknesses to manipulate. Don't let him charm you, either." Karin makes to interrupt indignantly but Sakura cuts her off. "Don't bullshit me. I know you had a crush on him too, Karin, and he might use that. He expected to be able to walk all over me and continued to try to do so until I broke his jaw." The way Sakura flexes her fist, the leather glove creaking around her palm, Karin is very much so inclined to believe her.

Sakura gives her shoulder a squeeze and they march into the building, the door swinging shut behind them. It smells like disinfectant; the dry scent of a hospital mixed in with something lemony. They file down a few sets of stairs and stop directly outside of a steel door without a window. It looms in front of them, a distinctly ominous feeling dropping like a stone in Karin's gut as she begins to weigh the pros and cons of turning tail and fleeing while she can.

The decision is made for her when Sakura raps on the door, not bothering to wait for an answer before throwing it open.

It's a smallish room that contains nothing but a bed, which is pushed against the opposite wall below a narrow window that's barred and caged. On the bed is Sasuke, leaning back on one arm in loose sweats and a shirt with the Uchiha symbol emblazoned on the back of it. He's reading a small, square book that has no cover. When he flips the page she sees his eyes flick sideways briefly, observing them.

She feels nothing.

Next to her, Sakura raises a hand in greeting. He inclines his head fractionally, acknowledging and returning it. His eyes trace from Karin and then back to Sakura.

"Yeah, Karin's here to say hello. She's on probation, you know. I've got her helping me out at the hospital. She might even get her citizenship before the end of the year. I think Tsunade's rather fond of her, despite her headache inducing voice." Sakura explains, like Sasuke had asked her a question.

Then she realizes she's forgotten how to speak Sasuke.

It takes her a minute to get worked up. "Hey! My voice does not induce headaches!" She snaps, adjusting the frames of her glasses.

"So Tsunade doesn't wear earplugs when she talks to you?" Sakura asks with an innocent grin.

"That was _one _time!" Karin insists with a grimace. So she has a loud scream, who doesn't? Tonton shouldn't have crept up to her like that in the first place! "Besides, billboard-brow, I'm not the one who nearly crushed her patients hand." That happened once when a man commented on her lack of cleavage.

Shockingly enough, it hadn't been Sai.

Although he _has_ been hanging around the hospital a lot... Karin files that detail away for later investigation.

"Shut up, four-eyes. We both know he had it coming." Sakura says with a sniff, folding her arms across her chest. Karin doesn't disagree so she rolls her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. A few feet away, Sasuke flips another page.

"Anyway!" Sakura claps her hands together as though drifting out of a reverie. "I'm gonna run an errand real quick and then I'll be back. It'll take me a few minutes." She smiles pleasantly at the both of them and then leans down to Sasuke, her smile frozen to her face in a way that looks less friendly and more like a lioness closing in on her prey. She whispers something almost inaudible in Sasuke's ear and then pops back up, patting him on the shoulder and making for the door.

"Sakura-" Karin attempts.

"See you in five!" Is all she gets. The kunoichi flounces out the door and it shuts with a decisive slam, like she was testing her chakra against its steel frame.

Silence descends like a landslide. It's as though all the sound has been sucked out of the world and whats left is the awkward quiet settled between the two of them. Karin mentally curses Sakura for leaving her all alone with a boy she hoped never to have to see again.

If Sasuke notices her inner plight, he doesn't show it.

_Bastard, _Karin thinks wryly.

Sasuke flips a page.

"So." The redhead streaks a hand through her hair and sinks into the uncomfortably rigid chair. Silence coalesces around them and Karin begins to consider what to say. "...How are you?" She finally decides.

"Fine." Sasuke says simply.

More silence.

"You know it's common courtesy in most countries to ask how the other party is doing." Karin says snappishly, the corner of her mouth pulled down in a grimace.

Sasuke looks up with faintly arched brow. "I don't care."

"Yeah, that became pretty obvious after you made a shish kebab out of my heart. Literally." She responds drily. Sasuke looks up, his face blank as a slate, and it's Karin's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What, thought I'd still be fawning over you after you skewed me to Danzo?"

Sasuke tilts his head, studying her. She remains strong and poised against the scrutiny. When he shakes his head in response, Karin leans back. A weight has been removed from her shoulders and she feels it down to the tips of her toes. It's... freeing.

"You've changed." Sasuke says after a long pause.

Karin barks out a dry laugh. "Shit, it's been three years. Of course I've changed." She certainly feels changed right now, facing down one of her greatest fears, her greatest regret, and feeling totally unmoved by it all. Her gaze locks onto the bleak black irises across from her and she squints into them. There's something different there. It's not quite like Sakura said, not quite as obvious, but she can sense it even still.

His chakra isn't so cold anymore. There's a seed of light sown there, blooming in the darkness like a sunflower in a garden of brackish weeds.

She thinks she knows who put it there.

"You've changed too, Sasuke," She says, softer this time with a touch of fondness. Maybe he's been a prick but Sasuke was still their team leader. She still respects him, even if she feels nothing else.

"You probably know Suigetsu and Jūgo are here." Karin guesses, glancing up again to see Sasuke nod. "The idiots followed you right in. They've got the same deal I do. I think Suigetsu, at least, is going to take them up on it. I can't see him staying in a cell for very long anyway. I'm not sure about Jūgo though, honestly. He'll probably pull something stupid and wait for you to get out of jail before he agrees."

Karin rambles on, her eyes drifting absently from the floor to the barred window and the blue sky beyond it. When she stops talking the silence that billows around them is a little less awkward, and a little more warm. Or less cold, at least.

When she looks up, Sasuke's eyes are burning red and Karin frowns.

"Your chakra is supposed to be sealed." She informs him, but she's not entirely surprised by the fact he found a way around it. What she is surprised by is the fact that he's still hanging around when he could bust out any time he wanted to.

"Yeah." He says.

"So why are you still here?" She asks, adjusting her glasses again.

Sasuke's carmine eyes revert to black and he looks away, back to his book, back behind his defensive wall. His sensitivity to the subject alarms her at first because she thinks 'he's found a woman?' and then 'damn it, not Sakura' and then she stops thinking at all because the answer is ridiculously obvious.

Karin purses her lips and hazards the guess, "Naruto, huh."

Sasuke's eyes twitch and slide in her direction again. The kunoichi shoots him a lazy smile.

"Never would've pegged him as your type." Karin comments after a moment, hand cocked on her hip confidently. It's been a while since she's felt so comfortable around Sasuke.

The Uchiha rolls his eyes. "Right. Because I have a type."

"Yep. And apparently it's outlined by cute blond boys with big grins and weird birthmarks." Karin quips, steadfastly holding back her laughter when Sasuke shoots her a glare.

"I. Do not. Have. A 'Type.'" He bites out. His glare is so withering she's almost surprised she hasn't dropped dead yet.

"Sure, sure. You haven't denied that you're staying here for Naruto yet, though." She reminds him, to which he says nothing. Karin nods and takes his silence as a strong affirmative. Like she even had to guess. The only person who ever managed to crack Sasuke's facade was Naruto. He's _still _the only person that can really get him to open up and show some solid emotion.

Karin bets that will change as time passes. Naruto has a way of bringing about such changes.

Sakura knocks and then walks back in with a bag of what might be Tsunade's groceries in hand. She beams at the fact that Karin and Sasuke haven't maimed each other and then drops a bright red tomato in Sasuke's lap. He glances at it, sets it aside, and goes back to reading.

Sakura pointedly clears her throat.

"Thank you, Sakura." Sasuke says automatically. Karin wonders for a moment how many fists to the face he took before the manners became automatic, and then decides she would rather not know. At least Sakura would've healed him afterwards.

They visit for a few moments more and then leave, waving goodbye to Sasuke who raises a palm back.

"He's really changed." Karin says when they leave the building, and she glances over to see Sakura smiling broadly and nodding.

Feeling weightless for the first time in a long time, Karin's lip twist up in an unconscious grin.


End file.
